The inside story of how two rival adult film parodies are turning the MTV ethnic insanity into even more of a situation, providing one more battle for a porn star attempting her comeback

Before the entire freakish phenomenon that is Jersey Shore had even reached the air, Taryn Thomas knew it was her calling: "When I saw the commercial, I was hooked." After all, she's a Jersey girl who's spent every summer at the family beach house next door to James Gandolfini's family — and who also happens to be a former recipient of the Dirtiest Girl in Porn Award.

Come on: You saw the MTV show's adult spin-off coming a couple of turnpike exits away. Because whether it's the government crackdown on obscenity or the industry reaction to a glut of free amateur clips online, pornography has entered its golden age of parody. "They're icebreakers," Thomas says. "Not only can a dude watch it jerking off, but he can bring it home and watch it with his girlfriend." And if The Hills, Glee, and Curb Your Enthusiasmare spoof-worthy, The Situation and his fellow guidos and guidettes should be a slam dunk, right?

Well, nothing's been easy for Thomas lately. A porn star is in many ways an athlete, and athletes get injuries. She had a gruesome one. The veteran actress suffered an anal tear that led to drug problems and weight gain — "I'm Italian, so eating is natural to me" — taking her out of the game for two years. Thomas came back to find an industry with far fewer work opportunities, so she started a production company with her sweetheart. First up: Jersey Shore XXX, with Thomas starring as Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi (aka "The F--king Princess of F--king Poughkeepsie"). Trouble was, established porn shop Zero Tolerance would soon announce production of its own Official Jersey Shore Parody.com — and later claim it was unaware of Taryn It Up Entertainment's stake in the beach.

"I have all the evidence to prove that they lied to me," Thomas says. "They said that they Googled it, and they did not Google it, because my stuff came up. People are gonna copy other people's ideas, and that's what it is."

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We've seen franchise duplication many times in Hollywood — witness the standoffs between Deep Impact and Armageddon or Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Observe and Report. But this is different. To paraphrase the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing, porn has an ethics.

"It generally is an unspoken rule that you don't copy other people's stuff," Thomas says. "I think they thought, 'Oh, she's just a new company, she'll back down.' I didn't want to back down, because this movie means so much to me."

Thomas has a bit of beef with MTV's own version ("Some of the cast members had never even been to the Jersey Shore before," she says, without addressing the revelation that Snooki isn't Italian), but she's hoping the franchise sticks around long enough to build her own: "I want to do a total of four [movies], and then in between we're going to do Webisodes. There's so many things you can do around the show. I want to do clothing, condoms, dildos — there's really no limit. It's Jersey Shore. It's captured the hearts of so many people."

What could derail the juggernaut that is Jersey Shore? The usual candidate: celebrity. "I love the cast to death, but they're famous now — you can't take them back to the Shore," she says. "Next time they get in a fight, it's going to be a big, huge legal battle."

For now, Jersey Shore XXX and Official Jersey Shore are battling for the hearts and minds of viewers — they're available, and very much NSFW, here and here. But even if MTV's current smash goes the way of Liza & David (you know, when Liza Minnelli and David Gest wanted VH1 to document their love; wonder how those kids are doing), and takes down Taryn's dream with it, she'll always have the memories: "Shooting the movie was very emotional. It was a big deal for me — I finally got to do my porno on the Jersey Shore."

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